Who Your Real Friends Are
by odalys-ortiz
Summary: The first in a series called Choices. The FBI recanted their job offer to Detective Carter and she can't help but be utterly devastated. This event makes her question her relationship with Cal to the point that she seeks the comfort of a man that she hadn't seen in almost 2 weeks. Clearly Carter/Reese which pretty much takes places after Booked Solid.


Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me except for the idea. If it did, this shipper would already be a reality. Enjoy.

Who Your Real Friends Are

She was frustrated, confused, and angry. Joss continued to sit in the middle of her living room, her eyes a puffy red from her extended bout of crying. She didn't experience enough in the last few years that would reduce her to a bout of tears, but the recent events changed that about her.

Today had probably been the hardest disappointment in her life. She had run into problems before with her being a woman, but she had always managed to get by the assumptions of the sterotype. It was different this time around though. When Agent Moss came back after the incident with Donnelly, she felt the worry build up. Were they looking for the man in the suit again? Did they find out that she had left the scene of the accident?

Suprisingly, they wanted to offer her a job at the FBI from a recommendation they found in Donnelly's reports. She was honored but also terrified. She was so scared that she asked Finch for advice when he called to ask for her assistance with their current case. She knew that there would be a polygraph test and his advice on how to do well on the test seemed like it was crazy enough to work.

When it was time for the test, she found herself completely calm and confident. She had lied on the question about taking drugs and figured that earned her some credit because of the fact that she was supposedly being honest despite the fact that it was a minor misdemeanor. Joss felt like she was doing well up to the point when they were interrupted by another agent. She was thrown for a loop when the line of questioning turned towards Cal. She had genuinely not known anything about his professional activities or the fact that he was under investigation for a murder. He seemed like a good enough guy. Guess appearances weren't everything.

When Agent Moss told her that they couldn't give her the job, she didn't know what to say. This was a really great opportunity to her. _You should probably watch the company you keep. _She could see the sympathy in the Agent's eyes at her disappointment. He truly believed that it wasn't her fault, but there was nothing he could do to help her at least at this time. Now here she was, pissed off as hell at a guy she considered introducing Taylor to.

When Cal came back later that day, she was not in the mood. He had lied to her about what was going on with him and she really had hoped that they had gotten past that stage in the relationship. Turned out she was so wrong. She didn't argue with Cal anymore over this. In the end, she just broke it off and came home straight after work.

Taylor was staying over at a friend's house tonight so she was all alone. She didn't really do anything when she got back except plop down on the couch and bawl her eyes out. Once she ran out of tears to shed, her mind unexpectedly went to John. She had always thought that her dealings with him would ruin her career. She was wrong and felt bad for thinking of him in such poor judgement. There was something that she wanted to tell him, but she hadn't really talked to him since the incident with Stanton. She would be lying if she said she didn't miss him.

She had welcomed his company often. It seemed like he had a sixth sense and knew when to come over so that they would talk about things they experienced during the day. It was a type of conversation that only the two of them could have given their career choices. Maybe that's why she felt better being around him. She thought that she wanted something normal. She thought that Cal fitted into that norm. She had changed during the course of time that she spent with the vigilante. She would think about him more often then she cared to admit. She thought of him as a friend, but there were times when she would fantasize about something more.

She thought that Cal would be able to fulfill her needs as far as a relationship was concerned, but they never crossed any sort of line to progress things further. There was something holding her back and it looked like she had a genuine reason to do that now. With John, it was different. Whenever she was with him, everything felt so right. He would tease her at times to get a rise out of her but it was all in good fun. Then there was the constant flirting between the two of them. With how much of it that they did, she questioned whether he felt differently about her then just an informant or friend. She hoped so in her heart, despite how wrong it was to feel like this for a criminal.

A hard rapping on her door brought her out of her thoughts. Not really in the mood to get up and answer, she just replied "Go away, I'm busy." That was her usual response to annoying door to door salesman that managed to get into the building. The knocking persisted, this time becoming slower. She then suspected who it was and she was hesitant to go to the door. They hadn't seen each other in almost two weeks and now she must have looked like hell from the crying that she did earlier. If it was him on the other side of that door, she could care less to be honest. She just wanted to see him.

Getting up off the couch, she made her way to the door, looking through the peephole she couldn't see anyone on the other side which caused her to smile a little bit. He always liked to joke around with her. Guess he somehow knew that she was not feeling good right now. Undoing the lock, she opened the door, angling her head slightly down so he couldn't see her face. Even doing that, she knew he would notice regardless.

"Well long time no see Detective." He chose to ignore her state at the moment. "Are you busy because I could just come back to bug you later." He was giving her a choice to tell him the truth. She decided to give in. "Well I had gotten a job offer from the FBI earlier today." His eyes couldn't help but widen at this new information.

"And…" he questioned. "Don't tell me that they didn't give it to you. You are the perfect person to be asked. You are a great detective and they could use someone like you." He paused as he thought of another possibility. "Was it because of the stuff at Riker's?" She shook her head. "Then what's wrong? I can't pretend to not notice your puffy eyes anymore."

She stepped aside to let him in. Once he was passed the threshold, she closed and bolted the door behind him. "It was because of Cal." When she looked back at him, she could see his blue eyes shift to a darker, colder state. "What did he do?" he asked. She remembered weeks ago when John had teased her about her relationship. He told her that if Cal did anything wrong to her, he would take care of it.

"It's my fault. The polygraph was going well until another agent came into the room and handed Moss a file. Then they started asking me if I had known anything about his work and about the fact that he was under investigation for a murder around his precinct. I was told afterwards when I asked the reason for the rejection was just to watch who I associated with in the future."

She laughed out of irony. "It's funny. After Finch asked me to check out the hotel's records, I had asked him for advice about the polygraph because obviously there would be some questions about Donnelly. He told me to just lie on a basic question to throw off the examiner. Crazy thing is that I think it worked. It's just ironic that you guys were really trying to help me out and a guy who I thought was on the level with turned out to be the bad guy here." She ended up leaning up against the wall next to him. "I guess I'm just a terrible judge of character huh?"

She could hear the sigh coming from him. He slipped off his jacket and put it on the back of the couch before joining her on the wall. He was in close proximity to her. Even though he wasn't physically touching her, she could feel his body heat radiating to her. It had a comforting effect, like cuddling up with a lover on a cold night. This was the feeling that she should have experienced with Cal, but she didn't.

It wasn't so much she didn't as much as she couldn't. She thought that she could take things further and possibly introduce him to her son. She hadn't been with anyone emotionally in so long, not since her husband died. That's not to say that she didn't enjoy her time with John. She secretly would count the amount of time they spent together since he brought her into the team. The clock was about to reach close to the two year mark. She wondered if she was insane. She could spend that much time with a man she was trying to arrest at first and have an interesting time almost everyday.

The cases would always bring a hint of excitement to her otherwise dreadful life. It pulled her away from the depressing aspects of being a homicide detective. With their help, someone was able to see their son graduate or their daughter get married. Regardless of their methods, they made a difference. Cal didn't bring up these same feelings. She had been seeing him for two months, but she never really felt herself make a connection.

She probably accepted his callings out of fear of loneliness when John wouldn't need her help for that week. She felt terrible for seemingly deceiving him during the course of the relationship. Unfortunately it was all for the worse because even though she tried to make it work, she was tricked herself in the end. She wanted to know more.

"John…"

"Do you want me to look into him?"

He used his mind reading ability to know her question. They've been around each other long enough to answer questions that haven't been asked just yet.

"Maybe it's because I'm angry or I just have to know, but could you?"

She looked at him and saw that his eyes indeed shifted back to the tone that he seemed to only show to people who he genuinely cared for.

"I did promise you that I would take care of it. I'll have Finch do a background check and get back to you once I do some digging of my own." He watched as she nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"Thanks" she stated simply.

"Hey…" he maneuvered his way over so that he was essentially using his body to trap her against the wall with a small bit of distance between them. He took one hand to her cheek, passing it softly over her skin. "You'll get your chance. You will Joss."

She smiled once again in his presence. Only he could ever bring this feeling out of her. She knew that it was this reason why she had grown to care about him. Even if he didn't feel exactly the same way, just being there for support would be enough for now. What she didn't know was that he was here because he cared about her too. He was yearning to see her after the thing with Kara and looked for some sort of excuse to drop by.

"Maybe it's for the best. I enjoy working in the precinct still. I will just have to wait for now." He was about to question her when he saw a twinkle in her eye and understood that she wasn't talking about her fellow officers. He was elated on the inside that she found her time working with them enjoyable and fulfilling. That's exactly how he felt since he was given the second chance so that he could redeem himself.

"I should probably go. Are you going to be alright?" She had to hide her disappointment at his departure. She knew that he had lives to save, but that didn't mean that she wished he would stay a bit longer. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Go on and cause trouble like you always do," she joked. It was of course their usual way of saying goodbye to each other. "I'll let you know what I find out about Cal as soon as I get some time."

He took hold of his jacket and placed it back over his shoulders. She undid the bolt and opened the door for him to pass through. "Okay, and John?" He looked at her. "Can you please try not to make things too messy on your next case? I would like to be more involved since you hadn't called me in almost 2 weeks." He engaged her for a bit longer.

"Finch called you earlier to ask about…"

"I meant you John. I just want to talk to you especially now because you are doing this for me. I'm still a bit rattled about what happened and I want someone else to talk to since I can't speak to Cal anymore." The infamous smirk began to tug at his lips in response to her admission.

"Don't you dare get the wrong idea John" He held his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright Detective, you have my number after all."

"Unfortunately that is true."

"Or fortunately in your case since you have a direct line to your own personal vigilante." He smiled proudly as he had been accustomed to one of many titles given to him by quite a few people.

"Get out of here" she said in mock anger. He bid her goodbye and made his way down the stairs out into the unknown. Making her way back inside, she secured the door again so the cold air was around for only a moment. Her mind could only imagine at what lengths John would go to in order to do this for her. She would be his priority because of the promise he made. John was a man who always kept them, just like when he saved Taylor from Elias. The ringing of her phone brought her out of her thoughts. As she was about to answer, she saw on the ID that it was Beecher. She had told him that they should probably take things slow, but in all honesty she needed to tell him it was over.

John would confirm her suspicions about him she had no doubt, but after seeing him again and having those feeling come up again it wouldn't matter. After a few rings, the machine picked up for her and Cal began to speak. "Hey Joss, guess you're working on a big case right now. Look, I don't know what happened earlier today but maybe we could get together and talk. I guess I see you tomorrow." She thought not and just went to bed with thoughts filled of what the vigilante had in store for her in the morning.

A/N: Obviously I'm not a big fan of Cal lol. He really made me mad enough in the newest episode to just write this one so hopefully you guys enjoy it^^


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